Missouri Senate candidate Lucas Kunce didn't pull any punches when responding to what looked like some desperate moves from his opponent, Josh Hawley. As someone who lives in Missouri, I was extremely unhappy that the Democratic party in our state threw their weight behind one of the worst candidates we've ever had for Senate, Trudy Busch Valentine, rather than Kunce the last go around.

I'll be very happy if Kunce takes chicken-boy Hawley out this time around now that it appears the Democratic party in Missouri and the voters here decided maybe voting for someone who is actually going to fight and take their opponent head-on rather than playing nice with these fascist Republicans is the way to go to appeal to voters.

Kunce made an appearance on this Friday's All In With Chris Hayes, and Hayes played this ad for his audience, which features St. Louis native John Goodman, before asking Kunce to weigh in.

HAYES: The most recent poll in June showed Hawley up by nine points. He should be cruising up to victory but maybe his internal polling is telling him something different because he's acting like a guy in a neck and neck brace and frankly desperate.

This was Hawley pulling the kind of thirsty stunt at the Missouri State Fair yesterday that the candidate getting crushed usually tries to kind of get some attention to get in the race.

He had a camera follow him as he hunted down Kunce and then demanded him debate him, right then and there, even though Kunce has agreed to five debates already.

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I have to say, I saw the headline and then I saw the picture and I will be honest, I thought you had gone to do that to Josh Hawley, because in my head I was thinking, well, you know, he's the incumbent and he's probably favored in this race.

I was pretty shocked it was the other way around. Do you understand what's happening here?

KUNCE: I know what's happening. I mean, the man is scared because he knows that Missourians hate him. He knows that we don't want the things he wants, which is to take away no-fault divorce, contraception, in-vitro fertilization, no abortion access for rape in incest.

It's just... I'm sorry dude, but that's not what everyday people want. And, you know, the craziest thing about this is that last year at the same event at the State Fair, I went up to say hi to him and he pulls your typical Josh Hawley, right? His classic move, which was skittering away as fast as he could.

You know, I guess in the interim he must've phoned up on a few chapters of his manhood, because he came to play this year. All miked up, camera crew behind him, and just, you know, yapping up in my face for, I don't know, probably five minutes.

HAYES: You just mentioned IVF contraception and abortion. And I should note that you are one of the several states that are going to have a ballot initiative on abortion. The initiative has not been certified, but it looks like it's going to clear.

And right now, the polling on that shows 44 percent support of restoring abortion rights in your state, 37 percent opposed. Hawley on this seems pretty clear. How much do you think this will be a factor in the race?

KUNCE: Oh, this is everything. It's not just this, but this is going to be huge for us. People are excited to take the rights back from controlling politicians like him. I mean, he wants to control us in the bedroom, in the doctor's office, in workplace.

The last thing Missourians want is to be controlled. They want a Senator who will bring money home, and protect their rights, so that we can just make our own decisions rather than being told how to live.

This guy brings no money back, and he wants to take away all our rights, which, again, is why he scared, it's why he's doing these stunts, and it's why he spent $1 million in line attack ads against me already.

He came out of the gate. Didn't say thing about himself, $1 million of just complete lie attack ads, because he is absolutely scared.

Kunce went on to discuss Trump disparaging people who've been awarded the Medal of Honor, and how insulting his comments were to veterans like himself.

We'll find out shortly whether Missouri is willing to vote for someone with some integrity, or whether we're stuck with a Trump apologist like Hawley.

I hope they do end up debating, even if one of the venues ends up being Hawley's "safe place" on Fox.